Los Angeles Times
Bill Richardson is confortable with Pay to Play
With an almost audible sigh of relief barely two weeks before his inauguration Obama,in a printed statement that won’t provide archival video footage,said he accepted the resignation-before-actually-taking-office “with deep regret.”
And 16 days before becoming president,Obama sought to turn the PR smudge and federal probe of Richardson,his first Latino Cabinet pick,and his government into a patriotic plus:“It is a measure of his willingness to put the nation first that he has removed himself as a candidate for the Cabinet in order to avoid any delay in filling this important economic post at this critical time.”
It may also be a measure of the inadequacy of the new Obama administration’s vetting process that it somehow missed or ignored the ongoing and widely-reported grand jury testimony over alleged incidents in 2004 in New Mexico,part of a broad federal investigation of selling state services. It would seem to be an obvious something for the experienced Richardson to include when completing the 63-page questionaire given to potential Obama appointees.